I assume there will be some in-depth backstory for the new world. I love that, but sometimes it is hard to follow. Zorbo, god of thunder, savior of Tarzinia is burning the fields as foretold in the book of Whathaveyou. It is all very interesting, but hard to follow in many of these games. A simply illustrated history/lore book would be something I would be down for. When I was a kid waiting for the next Ultima game, I would actually call Origin systems from time to time and try to negotiate a copy of the upcoming manual just because I love to read the stories. The old Ultima books were so well done. That, and I was kind of a dork, but hey nobodies perfect.
Agreed, I like this idea or anything that is useful to the game itself. There was a PS3 game that came out recently called Nino Kuni that did this well with their collectors edition which featured an index of all the spells with descriptions as well as stories related to the game. Perhaps something that has the backstory, lists possible forging combo's etc. Anything that makes something more convenient but not game breaking.
I agree that a Lore Book is necessary, they were a great part of the Ultima series. I still like to read the spells and regeants pages of my Ultima Collection manual, and would pay a few dollars for something like this even if it doesn't come with the level of donation I made.
I can't imagine a whole book of SotA ever being available. The series, at least the first episode is about discovery and it probably sets the stage for the following episodes. The towns and cities are constantly under siege and our game play is centered on investigating why this is happening and discovering who is behind it all. As of now it looks like a book on this would defeat the whole purpose of the game.